


Red, Green & Baby Blue

by e_cat



Category: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Genre: Canon Compliant, Christmas, Future Fic, Holiday Exchange, I'm very proud of the title, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:47:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22055773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/e_cat/pseuds/e_cat
Summary: Years in the future, Henry and Alex are foster parents in the process of adopting their three-year-old daughter - while trying to keep the media out of it, and preparing for Christmas celebrations.
Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor
Comments: 13
Kudos: 231





	Red, Green & Baby Blue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JessJesstheBest](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JessJesstheBest/gifts).



> For Jessie in the RWRB discord Holiday Exchange! Happy Holidays!

Keeping a toddler secret is next to impossible, and also the least rewarding job in the universe, Alex has decided. June has been sending him unprompted reminders that the secrecy is temporary, and Nora keeps hacking his password to lock him out of Instagram. Both of these things work to keep Alex from temptation, briefly. But then he resets his password and is left with his fingers hovering over the screen once more.

Henry has been the most effective at keeping Alex from blowing this. He doesn’t give reminders; the two of them already discussed this at length before they ever signed up as foster parents. What Henry does is kiss Alex’s fingers or palms to convince him to leave the phone behind. He brought home a digital camera a few weeks ago that he hands to Alex instead. There isn’t quite as much temptation to post if he has to upload the images to a computer first.

“It’s almost official,” Henry whispers after they’ve gotten Julia to sleep with no less than three storybooks. “Just a few more crossed t’s and dotted i’s.”

They journey to the living room and sink onto the couch. “This process takes too long,” Alex complains. He takes a cookie from the plate on the table and bites in. “Somebody needs to reform the system,” he says around his mouthful.

Henry chuckles. “I think it’s probably best that there are _some_ hoops to jump through for adoption,” he points out.

Alex sighs. “You’re right,” he allows. “But it’s still terrible.” He checks the time. “How long until we can take out the presents?”

“We should make sure she’s really asleep before putting out gifts,” Henry says. He steals Alex’s cookie. “Or eating too many of these.”

Alex reaches for it. “Come on, the milk will go bad!” he complains.

“Shh! You’ll wake her,” Henry warns. He takes a large bite out of Alex’s cookie. “Drink it if you want, but you’re taking the blame if she catches you.”

“Hmph, I never take the blame,” Alex says. He snatches a new cookie and dunks it in the milk. “I’m the fun parent.”

Henry sighs. “I’m perfectly fun,” he defends half-heartedly.

Alex gives him a gentle smile and a stroke on the cheek. “You are,” he agrees. “Of course you are. Just not as much fun as me.”

Henry leans his head on Alex’s shoulder. “I don’t know how we’re going to get her to your mum’s without being seen,” he says.

“That’s what we have a security team for,” Alex assures him. “We said we wanted to be with family. We said we didn’t want to keep her locked in the house.” And they’ve managed to keep that promise so far – with little discrete outings with just one of them. Now that Alex is no longer First Son, now that Henry being an English prince living in New York isn’t so novel, they haven’t had to worry about the press as much. It’s become a concern again with keeping Julia under wraps until the adoption is finalized, but only in the way that they and their security teams are extra-vigilant about avoiding recognition. They aren’t being trailed by reporters or flooded with twitter mentions, though it’ll surely come once they share the news.

“Besides,” Alex says, “I don’t know how you can worry about tomorrow afternoon. First, we have to get through tomorrow morning without bragging about our family like all the rest of the world.”

Henry groans. “Alex…”

“I know, I know,” Alex says. “But can you just imagine the pictures? We could all wear Santa hats, or even just in our pajamas. And then opening presents – I mean, is there a single thing in the universe more adorable than a two-year-old surrounded by wrapping paper on Christmas morning?”

“People do make scrapbooks, you know,” Henry says. “And I’m sure our families will be happy to gush over it for you.”

“No, Henry. Henry.” Alex places his palm flat on Henry’s chest. “You need to take my phone away. I mean it. I won’t be able to resist. The powers of cuteness are too much for me!”

Henry laughs. “I will think about it,” he says. “But I think you should have enough willpower to resist. We’ve made it this far.”

Alex curls his fingers in Henry’s shirt and relaxes against him. “You’re right,” he says, “but tomorrow will still be torture, of like, the best sort.”

“Definitely,” Henry agrees. “Now, I believe we have a queue of movies we can’t watch with Julia, and a couple of hours before we should set out the gifts.” He finds Alex’s hand for a squeeze. “What would you say to some peppermint hot cocoa?”

 _Yes_ , Alex thinks. Yes, like everything else in this idyllic life. He doesn’t want anything for Christmas except what he has right here.

\-------------------------------

Henry wakes when Julia jumps onto his stomach at six AM. “Santa came! Santa came!” she cheers. “Henry, Alex! Wake up! Santa came!”

“Oof,” Henry huffs and rolls Julia onto the mattress between him and Alex. She giggles. “Merry Christmas, darling,” Henry says. “Santa’s come, you say? Did he bring many presents?”

“Yes,” Julia declares. “ _Tantos_.” She tugs at his and Alex’s arms. “Time for gifts!”

“Hold on, _mija_ ,” Alex says. He’s started slipping up by using this endearment, and Henry hopes that this adoption goes through, or it might well ruin the both of them.

Henry kisses Alex on the cheek. “I’ll make the coffee; you get her teeth brushed?” Henry imagines that it’s completely ineffectual to brush Julia’s teeth when she’ll probably be eating candy five minutes later, but he supposes that good habits should be enforced even on Christmas.

Alex shrugs. “Fine with me,” he says, slipping out of bed. He scoops Julia up into his arms. “Come along, my little elf.”

Julia giggles. “Not an elf!” she protests.

“You’re not?” Alex teases as he carries her from the room. “Are you sure?”

Henry smiles to himself as he steps out of bed and into his slippers. David’s collar jingles as he lifts his head to give Henry an unimpressed look. He was not planning to wake up this early, the look seems to say, and he won’t be changing his mind for anything less than the smell of breakfast cooking.

Henry leans down to pat his head. “Good boy,” he says. “Why don’t we let you out while the coffee is brewing?” He heads out to the kitchen to get that started, but it takes David a couple minutes more to decide to leave his bed. From the bathroom, he can hear Alex singing the alphabet song, once in English and once in Spanish, as a way of ensuring that Julia brushes her teeth long enough. Julia doesn’t quite know how to read yet, but Alex seems to think that teaching her the order of the alphabet will give her a leg-up on learning. Henry thinks there are more effective methods.

Henry pours a scoop of dog food into David’s bowl and refills the water dish. David can be heard stretching in the bedroom, and finally plodding out to the kitchen. He’s intercepted by Julia, who’s finished brushing her teeth and is singing “Jingle Bells” at the top of her little lungs as she skips out to them. She breaks off to hug the dog and exclaim, “Merry Christmas, Davie,” which is her version of “David.” Henry steps out from behind the island counter in time to snap a picture of David licking Julia’s face; he adores her.

Julia giggles and lets David get to his breakfast. Henry pours her a bowl of cereal and lifts her onto one of the high chairs at the counter. “Breakfast before presents,” he tells her, and manages to stand his ground even though she pouts at him. She eats her cereal. Alex has yet to make an appearance.

“Alex,” Henry calls back towards the bedroom, “I do hope you’re not getting into any trouble in there.” Julia giggles at the idea of Alex being in trouble.

“I’m not!” Alex responds. He finally emerges, phone in his hand. Henry eyes it, which Alex notices when he looks up. “I didn’t do anything!” he protests.

Henry holds out his hand and Alex reluctantly places the phone in his palm. Henry glances through what Alex has been doing – checking email; replying to Nora’s 12:01 AM “Merry Christmas!!”; texting June for good measure. And he’s been on Twitter.

Henry glances at Alex, who is doing his best to look innocent and dignified. Henry opens the Twitter app anyways.

He finds it right away – there are already a couple thousand likes, replies, and retweets. Alex has tweeted, “nothing like an early #Christmas morning with ur #family #MerryChristmas #MayYourNewYearDreamsComeTrue”

Henry shakes his head. “You are a menace to society,” he says. He sets Alex’s phone down and finds his own in the pocket of his robe. He tweets, “. @AlexClaremontDiaz #FelizNavidad #ProsperoAnoYFelicidad”; as an afterthought, he adds “#family” on the end.

Alex presses on the top of the phone to tilt it towards him. He grins. “I bet mine trends faster than yours.”

Henry scoffs. “Well, more of my followers will be awake,” he says. He leans down to pat David, who’s snuffling at his leg. “Come on,” he says. “Let’s go out for a moment.”

“I’ll get the coffee,” Alex volunteers, pulling out mugs from the cabinet. Henry shoots him a grateful smile and hooks on David’s leash. They step outside in the early morning chill. It’s still fairly dark out, but the city is starting to wake up. Another sleepy dog owner waves from down the block.

Once David has taken care of business, the two of them go back in. Julia, who has apparently been watching the door, cheers. “Present time!” she shouts. Henry laughs as he unhooks the leash.

“Oh, all right,” Alex says. “If you insist.” He glances into her cereal bowl. “One sip of milk first.” Julia complies and presents him the bowl. Alex takes it to set in the sink.

“Yay!” Julia says, springing off the chair and into Henry’s arms. “Presents!”

Henry laughs and snags his phone. “Yes, yes,” he says. “Alex, get the camera. Leave the phone.”

“Aww,” Alex complains, half joking. “You better get some good home screen pics for me.”

“Sure,” Henry says. He sets Julia down in front of the presents. Alex joins them with his camera hung around his neck and a mug in each hand. He gives one to Henry and finds himself a place to sit with a good angle on Julia. Henry sets his coffee on the floor and sits down next to Alex. “Shall we start with the stockings?”

“Yeah!” Julia says.

“Wait!” Alex objects. “Let’s get a picture first.” He lifts the camera and focuses on Julia, then the tree, then the stockings, leaning against the fireplace because they’re too heavy to hang. Then he turns the camera on Henry, who quickly hides his face behind his hands.

“It’s too early for pictures,” he complains. “I haven’t even combed my hair.”

Alex swats at his hands and snaps the picture anyways. “You look as good as Christmas morning,” he says. Henry still retaliates and takes a picture of Alex with his phone.

“Alex,” Julia whines. “Too many pictures.”

“Oh, go on, darling,” Henry says. “Get your stocking.”

Julia is more than happy to do so. She begins digging through, exclaiming at all of the chocolates and suckers. “We’ll have to store them away from David, but just let us know when you want some,” Alex says. David, who has already settled onto his living room dog bed, tilts his head. He really isn’t a big concern; the concern is making sure Julia doesn’t eat all that candy in one afternoon.

“Okay!” Julia agrees, plenty happy to go along with the plan anyways. She reaches for her first present. Alex, who has gotten far too many pictures of her with the monogramed stocking, gets several more of the journey her hand takes to the first gift.

“Some of these are from us, too,” Henry lets her know. They can’t let Santa take all the credit, after all.

Julia’s eyes go wide as she looks up from shredded wrapping paper and a set of candy cane pajamas. “Really?” she says.

“Of course,” Alex says. “That’s what grown-ups do at Christmas time – they get presents for the people they love.” He reaches under the tree and produces a gift with Star Wars wrapping, which he somehow managed to hide under there last night without Henry seeing. He hands it to Henry and says, “Merry Christmas, baby.”

“Aww!” Julia coos.

“Also,” Alex says, picking up the snowflake-wrapped box Henry set out with everything else, “I already know what you got me. You’re terrible at hiding things.”

Henry shakes his head. “You could at least do me the courtesy of acting surprised.”

Alex kisses his cheek. “No,” he says sweetly.

Henry laughs in spite of himself. “You’re setting a bad example,” he notes as he carefully removes the paper from his gift. It turns out that Alex has gotten him a mug with his own face grinning out at Henry. It would be terrible, except that Henry unfortunately likes Alex’s stupid, self-satisfied face.

Henry smiles and settles the gift on his lap. He snaps a quick picture of Julia, who hasn’t waited for their undivided attention to tear into the wrapping on her new stuffed reindeer toy. Alex has gotten up and given David a rawhide bone with a bow on it.

“Alex!” Julia says. “¡ _Un reno_!” She holds up the toy.

“ _Sí_ ,” Alex says, producing a child’s antler headband from nowhere and popping it onto Julia’s head. “ _Dos renos._ ” He pulls out an adult headband and puts it on his own head. “ _Tres._ ” He tosses a third headband to Henry, who obligingly puts it on. “ _Cuatro._ ”

Julia collapses into giggles, and Alex is attempting to take pictures while his own laughter makes the camera shake. Henry can’t help but laugh along with them, and as David lifts his head to question their sanity, he thinks: _I have the best family._

**Author's Note:**

> I want you to know that the adoption goes through, but I couldn't write it in because lbr, who's finalizing adoptions on Christmas?
> 
> Tantos = so many  
> Reno = reindeer


End file.
